Friday 6th December, 2024

Elfride was travelling very strongly into the straight at Ludlow on Wednesday after which she failed to pick up and finished fourth.  We subsequently found that she had broken a blood vessel which would account for her performance.  The problem is not uncommon with racehorses and we will now treat her for this condition and I am sure if we can sort the problem she will be very competitive once again.

Yesterday I went to Newmarket sales and was fortunate to buy Sumatran Tiger who has raced in both France and Jersey.  Having seen her win two Jersey Derbys, she has plenty of ability and will hopefully be a dual-purpose horse for us.  She has a nice pedigree and hopefully will be one to go to the paddocks eventually.

This morning Richard Johnson came to ride work on Neeps And Tatties, a five-year-old daughter of Black Sam Bellamy who he bred.  Tatty has taken a bit of time to mature and would have run in a bumper earlier in the year but for pulling a muscle.  She is entered at Hereford on Wednesday and hopefully after this experience she will go hurdling.  She has a nice pedigree being a half-sister to several winners and I am sure she will be rewarding her owners’ patience in the future.

We have other entries for next week which some will be ground dependant but look forward to finding some competitive opportunities.